A $50-million warehouse rezone in southwest Fresno was delayed again Thursday, pulled from the City Council agenda by Councilmember Mike Karbassi and pushed to August alongside a sweeping neighborhood development plan it has become legally tied to.
The Elm Rezone — roughly 55 acres of industrial property whose owners have spent years trying to undo a 2017 resident-backed designation — was held up after City Attorney Andrew Janz recommended it be heard the same day as the final approval of the Central Southeast Specific Plan. Karbassi pulled that item too to give the city another 60 days for yet more legal analysis.
“Given that we have a history of getting sued and courts overturning [city council] decisions, I would like to delay the hearing for the Central Southeast Specific Plan until a time where we can have a legal analysis,” Karbassi said.
The two items have been bound together for months by a provision of state law the Southwest industrial landowners need to make their rezone work.
The land was rezoned from industrial to mixed use in 2017 under the Southwest Specific Plan. Since at least 2023, the owners — including Phillip Oates, a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings — have fought to switch it back, arguing the mixed-use designation strips value from their property.
Under SB 330, the Housing Crisis Act, the city cannot approve a rezone that removes housing capacity without simultaneously approving another action that adds enough units to offset the loss. The landowners contend the Central Southeast Specific Plan throws off enough surplus housing to cover their rezone — but only if the city adopts their consultant’s method for counting existing capacity.
The city’s planners put the plan’s new units at about 2,939. The landowners’ consultant says 3,543. Neither figure has been independently verified.
That gap matters because the number is likely to get disputed in court. In March, the last time the Elm Rezone was pulled, Councilmember Miguel Arias — who represents the southwest Fresno district where the properties sit — said there was “shady shit” behind new, unreleased calculations from the city’s Planning Department that would tilt the math toward the Elm owners.
That same month, Fresnoland reported that California Attorney General Rob Bonta had warned Janz the city would be sued by his office if the council approved the rezone.
Arias, who has watched the item bounce off the agenda repeatedly, tried to keep it scheduled Thursday. He was outvoted 5-2. Councilmember Brandon Vang, whose district contains the Central Southeast Specific Plan, tried to keep the development plan for his own district on the calendar. He was also outvoted 5-2.
Both are now set for Aug. 13.
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